


CEO Care and Maintenance

by babywarg (morphaileffect)



Series: DrPepperony Prompts and Fics [12]
Category: Doctor Strange (2016), Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/M, Gen, Oblivious Stephen Strange, Other, Overworking, Pre-Relationship, Protective Tony Stark, Short, Short One Shot, Sickfic, Tony Stark Has A Heart
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-13
Updated: 2019-10-13
Packaged: 2020-12-14 03:24:03
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,520
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21008933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/morphaileffect/pseuds/babywarg
Summary: Pepper falls ill after working too much as a new CEO for Stark Industries. A guilt-ridden Tony visits her at the hospital, and finds her in the hands of a handsome, haughty young doctor.





	CEO Care and Maintenance

**Author's Note:**

  * For [TheLadyStrange](https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheLadyStrange/gifts).

> From a prompt by mistressstrange on Tumblr: "Pepper gets sick/injured and Tony calls the hospital demanding they send their absolute best doctor. Leaves Pepper to answer to phone and walks back in on the most handsome man ever taking care of Pepper."
> 
> Doesn't follow the prompt exactly, but I hope it's still enjoyable ♥ Set shortly after Iron Man 2 and before the first Avengers movie.

One day without Ms. Potts was manageable. Barely.

Two days was hell.

Three days got Tony inquiring after the state of her health.

When he learned she was in the hospital recovering from extreme fatigue, he dropped everything to race over to said hospital.

His first impulse was to use the Iron Man suit. It would have taken him there faster.

But it was a hospital. She (as well as everyone else there) would not have appreciated the loud and flashy disruption. Therefore, a car would do.

_Extreme fatigue._

She had only said she was under the weather. He was imagining she was sitting at home, bundled up in blankets or in a fluffy robe, sniffling cutely while nursing a mug of hot cocoa she’d made for herself.

At worst, it would be the flu. She would still call. Assure him and all other stakeholders that way that everything was going to be fine.

But it had been fatigue, not the flu. She had collapsed as she was walking to her parked car three days ago, on her way to work. Other tenants of her apartment building found her and rushed her to Metro General.

The hospital Tony was rushing to get to.

He hadn’t thought about bringing her anything. That was why the balloon he’d bought at the hospital lobby, when _Shit I’d forgotten to bring her something _finally crossed his mind_,_ said “It’s a boy!” instead of “Get well soon!” (he was in a hurry and had grabbed the wrong balloon).

He hadn’t even thought about calling ahead. Which would have been a wise idea.

It would’ve spared him the shock of finding her smiling and laughing with a cute, young, blue-eyed doctor as she lay in her hospital bed, hooked up to an IV.

Tony didn’t know what he had been prepared to find. Ms. Potts still unconscious, maybe? Emaciated, barely able to move, like a damsel in distress?

But she looked fine. Just a little pale and weak, perhaps, but stunning as ever. Certainly strong enough to flash her billion dollar smile at a total stranger.

And the doctor she was with…looked _fine_.

_“Don’t worry, sir, she’d asked for the best doctor in the hospital,” _the nurse rushed to tell his anxious ass at reception, but he didn’t stay to hear the rest of it.

So this was the best doctor in the hospital.

“Tony!” she greeted breathlessly. “What are you doing here?”

She looked genuinely surprised to see him. The doctor standing by her bed, however, seemed unimpressed.

“I, uh,” he began. _Man,_ that doctor had pretty eyes. “Heard you were sick? Thought you may appreciate seeing a familiar face.”

All things considered, she really did look glad to see Tony. Which was a relief.

“Of course,” she said softly. “Thank you. And I’m sorry you had to come all this way. I didn’t want to trouble you.” She glanced over at the doctor. “I was going straight to the office to take care of everything after getting discharged tomorrow.”

“Hold on, Ms. Potts,” the young doctor sternly interrupted, in a deep baritone that flowed over to Tony like melted butter. “First of all, I haven’t signed off on that yet. We still have a couple more tests to run and I may decide to keep you here another night.”

“That’s why I got the best doctor in the house,” Ms. Potts argued, in a lightly flirtatious tone that did not escape Tony. “I have no choice but to get better fast, and I will.”

“Second,” - completely ignoring said flirtatious tone - “you’re heading back to work as soon as you get out of here? You’ve got to be kidding.”

“That’s right, Ms. Potts, you’ve got to be kidding,” Tony immediately echoed. “You’re going to stay and rest for as long as you need to.”

He stepped forward to hand the “It’s a boy!” balloon over to his former executive secretary. Who seemed amused and discreetly weirded out at the gift.

“Really,” Ms. Potts muttered, one corner of her lip raised. “I seem to recall you are no longer the boss of me.”

Tony made a playful warning gesture with one hand. “I made you CEO. I can take that back, you know.”

She smiled. Gosh, how he loved when he could make her smile. He was going to have to tell her that someday.

“I’m sorry, you are - ?”

This was from Doctor Hottie at her bedside. The question made Tony pause. Or maybe it was the way the doctor’s eyes seemed to look right into his soul.

“I’m her - ” What? Significant other? Ex-boss? Biggest headache? “ - friend.”

Ms. Potts’ eyebrows rose upon hearing that…though she didn’t overtly dispute it.

“Right,” the doctor answered, incredulous - apparently every bit as perceptive as he looked. “I’m Doctor Stephen Strange, Ms. Potts’ attending physician. I was in the middle of discussing Ms. Potts’ test results with her. This is normally information reserved for the family and the patient herself, so I’ll continue if Ms. Potts allows me - otherwise I’ll come back later. I do have other patients to see.”

Uh, wow. Self-important, much?

“Okay, Doc uh…” Tony fumbled for the name. “…Strange, is it? Can I talk to you outside for a bit?”

Strange looked over at Ms. Potts. Ms. Potts nodded, giving him permission.

He stepped out of the room with Tony without further argument.

Tony wasted no time in introducing himself properly - Tony Stark, president of Stark Industries, yadda yadda - and asking Dr. Strange what the deal was. And Strange was no-nonsense about it, which Tony appreciated.

Ms. Potts had not been sleeping. She’d been neglecting drinking fluids and eating healthily. She had been going to the gym, but without proper rest and nutrition, she had just been pushing her body past its limits. Her stress and anxiety levels were through the roof. And all of it had been going on for months.

Tony’s quick-working brain translated it as this:

Ms. Potts getting sick was his fault, for forcing her into a promotion.

They’d known each other for a while now. He should have known that the perfectionist in her might push her to be harder on herself than she actually needed to be.

Lots of company heads barely did any work. But Ms. Potts was always a hands-on manager. She would never be _that_ kind of CEO.

“She needs rest,” Dr. Strange emphasized. “Bed rest. At least a week of it. Two would be ideal.”

“Two weeks,” Tony thoughtfully repeated. “There’s…no way to speed that up, is there?”

An eyebrow shot up. “Eager to get her back to the grind, are you?”

“No.” _Asshole._ “I just know her well enough to know that there’s no way in hell she’ll take to two weeks of staying indoors. Stark Industries is her baby. If she’s not with her baby, she won’t be able to rest anyway.”

To Tony’s surprise, a note of compassion entered the doctor’s voice.

“I’m not recommending so much downtime on a whim. The fact of the matter is, Ms. Potts’ body badly needs to remember how to relax. When was the last time she went on vacation?”

Tony tried to think back. And came up blank.

“I…huh,” he remarked. “I don’t think she’s ever taken a vacation since she started working at SI.”

“You say you’re her friend,” the doctor said. “The best thing you could do for her as a friend is to convince her to listen to her doctor. And try to ease her burden.”

Tony thought for a second.

“I do have a place upstate,” he mused aloud. “A lakeside log cabin…nice little place, perfect for an extended vacation. She ought to be able to relax there.”

“Sounds like a plan,” Strange agreed.

“It’s about a two-hour drive from here. How much to book you for regular home visits?”

The question seemed to take the good doctor aback.

“I’m a resident, Mr. Stark. I don’t do home visits.” He sounded genuinely offended, and just a tad amused. “And you can’t ‘book’ me, I’m not a taxi.”

“Wrong choice of words.” Tony threw his hands up in apology. “I’m just saying…she seems to like you. And I want her to get the best medical care while she’s recovering. Money’s no object.”

The doctor looked Tony up and down. Man, how could he look so handsome while being so annoying?

“In that case,” Dr. Strange responded, smirking, “we may be able to arrange something. Call my assistant.”

This seemed to conclude their conversation. Without so much as a by-your-leave, the annoyingly hot young doctor left to resume his rounds.

Tony let him go; his mind was already buzzing with plans to accommodate Ms. Potts in his lakeside cabin for two weeks. He had better make sure he was with her for those two weeks, just to make sure she really _was_ resting, you know, and not on her phone stressing out and trying to run things by remote control.

And he had better be around for when Doctor Sexy came to visit.

You know.

Just to be safe.


End file.
